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The winds of change!

Winter is settled in, and with it has come a lot of change in my personal and professional life – hence my social media comment recently – “there’s a blog post in that!”

So what is going on?

First up, we sold our home of 27 years (yippee) and moved house to a brand new apartment in the inner west. One complicated change- tick. How did that go?? One third of our possessions were either given away or disposed of, another third came to our apartment, and the last third was placed into storage ready for the house we are building in country Albury. Another change underway – tick.

Albury /ˈɔːlbəri/ is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. This is our tree change for 5-10 years, though we also have an apartment in Sydney of course. It’s a quick flight from Albury to Sydney or Melbourne, so we will be back in Sydney a lot, or popping into Melbourne by way of a (shopping) change.

I also heard that my teacher librarian team and I are to receive a Faculty of Education citation for academic excellence. I’ll travel to Bathurst in a couple of weeks for that, and am honoured to have gained this second award since being at CSU. Yes, there has been a tremendous amount of work done, and some of it has had significant influence beyond our own team. Good work – tick.

Finally, if you have been ‘reading between the lines’ on social media you will know that I officially commenced in a new position a week ago – moving completely our of the Faculty of Education after leaving the School of Information Studies earlier in the year.

I’ve moved into the Faculty of Science. #gasp Don’t worry – I’m not claiming to be a scientist, chemistry boffin or pharmacist. The focus of my new role is still on e-learning and/or online learning as part of a quality learning and teaching project from the u!magine Digital Learning Innovation Laboratory at Charles Sturt University. Here we are working on a range of things, including change and innovation in the elearning space which is also being shaped up at CSULX | Online Learning Exchange.

We have a new three-faculty structure at CSU as of July 2016 (another big change) and I’ve stepped into the Faculty of Science position, working with my #globaleducator friend and Julie Lindsay in the Faculty of Arts and Education. That has to be another good tick!

Right now I am immersed in the Bachelor of Medical Science, soon to be followed with the Bachelor of Nursing for some intensive elearning design work. I’m glad that none of the scientific terminology is new to me at all, as my first ‘real’ professional work early in my career was as sub-editor of the Australian Medical Journal, followed by editorial assistant on the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery.

So curious how things have come full circle in a way – and how technology change has been at the heart of it in some practical ways. For example, it’s amazing to reflect on how complicated my editing work was back then, because typesetting was pre-digital so pre- press work meant a need for extreme editing accuracy and quality presentation of content prior to typeset. That was a real challenge I recall with some bemusement – particularly when I remember the editing the work of a noted Australian medical figure who also happened to be dyslexic.

So winter has really been a period of change – and one that I hope heralds a beautiful and calm spring ahead – oh and moving to our new home in Albury before Christmas. Tick!

Good bye to all my students in the various degrees that I have worked with in the last 5 years. Thank you for your friendship and passion for learning – please do stay in touch. You know where to find me on social media 🙂

Congratulations Judy – so many things to celebrate. Before starting my PhD in 2014 I was involved in some ground breaking work with the Flinders School of Nursing & Midwifery in developing integrated Moodle and video case studies for the new Bachelor of Nursing. I’d be delighted to meet up with you if you are in Sydney on 29 or 30 September to have a chat about this and matters eLearning in universites in general. I’ll be in Sydney with Gerry. Send me an email at irena.white@flinders.edu.au if you’re interested.

A big congrats, Judy! I have great memories of a week+ stay in Albury was back in 2000 visiting people at the TAFE and I remember visiting the CSU campus too. I wonder if Gail Farran is still there, she was a contact through a faculty exchange with Maricopa; I stayed at her home and I recall a river trip we did. I thinking was my 2007 trip where I first met you in Sydney?

No around here is getting old! But I can see Albury as a delightful place to start a future.

Wow – someone involved with Maricopa – that’s cool. But no, I haven’t come across Gail but will keep my eye out when I am on campus just in case. Yes, it must have been about 2007- how many trips have you been on 😉 But of course it was awesome to finally meet an honored inspirational colleague. Albury will be a nice country change for 5-10 years – something different and looking very much forward to buckets of fresh air. Lovely 🙂